Well, my guest post in Womagwriter's blog this week has certainly caused a bit of a stir as it coincided with rather a large spring clean of stories from a couple of the major magazines.
As everyone is aware, this is part and parcel of what we do - we take the rough with the smooth, take it on the chin, have a stiff upper lip - or do we?
The nice thing is that this has encouraged other writers to talk about their experience of rejections and this results in us feeling less alone! Thank you Helen Yendall at Blog About Writing for mentioning my post and keeping the discussion going.
It is easy for us to feel rejected (and dejected when that dreaded envelope drops through the door or the mail box pings on the computer) but spare a thought for the poor fiction editors who are inundated with literally hundreds of stories each week. Sometimes we have to remember that they have a difficult job to do as well. There was a plea this week from Jill Finlay of The Weekly News on Womagwriter's blog, which can be read here, asking for no new submissions for two months as she had such a back log and is the only reader.
For everyone in the reject club this week, Simon Whaley at Simon Says! talks about an article by Glynis Scrivens in this month's Writers Forum magazine called 'Turning a No into a Yes'. In it she talks about how other writers have turned rejections into acceptances - I'm off to buy it now!
Finally many thanks to those lovely people who have commented on or re posted my guest post, including Linda Lewis and to cheer you all up you must... I said MUST watch this youtube clip. It will bring a smile to your face and then you can get back to writing another story!
I enjoyed your interview! Yes. The whole rejection thing is soooo frustrating especially as I find my favourites tend to be the rejects and my crappy ones succeed...
ReplyDeleteLoved the clip!
Yes, it's so difficult to judge which ones they'll like, isn't it. The clip's great - whenever I feel down I watch it - it reminds me a bit of my zumba class! Oh and by the way, husband has just finishes 'Dead Ernest' and loved it too.
ReplyDeleteI don't like rejections (although I'm getting used to them!) The only thing that really helps me is to remember all that's being rejected is that story at that publication at that time. I'm not personally being rejected - the publication might take my next story and the story in question might find a home elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteWise words. Patsy - I shall try to remember that.
ReplyDeleteI've long accepted rejection comes with the job! I love puppets and that guy is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how he does that with two puppets, Rosemary - it would be hard enough with one!
DeleteWell done for such a great interview. You've just reminded me that I've got the new Writers Forum Magazine, but not managed to look at it yet, so now I'm off to look for that artical.:-) Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI've only just read it myself and I have to say I was rather surprised at how often some of the stories were recycled!
DeleteI like the sound of a Reject Club - can I join? We should get T-shirts printed too. I enter a lot of competitions and find a lot of submissions just go into a black hole, at least getting a rejection email/letter on a story confirms someone (hopefully) somewhere actually read it!
ReplyDeleteYes, you certainly may join, Tracy - the club would have many members I am sure!
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